News

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Bali Guesthouses Investigated for ‘Catering to Gays’ and ‘Tainting’ Island’s Reputation

At least four villas in Bali, Indonesia, are being investigated for “marketing themselves specifically for the gay community”, amid increasing anti-LGBT+ sentiment on the island. Although the island of Bali has historically been seen as one of the most tolerant places in country, in general discrimination and violence against LGBT+ people is on the rise in Indonesia. Gay sex is currently legal in most regions of the country, including Bali, but there are no discrimination protections for LGBT+ people and same-sex relationships are not recognised. In 2018, an Indonesian province where LGBT+ people face rife persecutionannounced that it wanted to […]

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Gay Refugees in Kenya Report Repeated Attacks from Locals

For years, Ugandan refugee Mbazira Moses has been typing out emails to dozens of international humanitarian organizations and United Nations officials with a message: LGBTQ refugees at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya need your help. The Kakuma camp and nearby Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement, both operated by the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, are together home to nearly 200,000 refugees from dozens of countries. Many, if not most, have fled overland from Kenya’s conflict-stricken neighbors: Uganda, South Sudan and Somalia. But according to Moses and experts on refugees and migration, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer refugees in Kakuma — many […]

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Judge Orders U.S. to Return Gay Asylum-seeker Deported to Chad

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security to return a gay asylum-seeker who was deported to Chad, ruling that the government had not properly considered his asylum claim based on his status as a gay man before deporting him. Oumar Yaide arrived in the U.S. in 2009 and requested political asylum because he was a member of “a disfavored group,” a Chadian ethnic group called the Gorane. His asylum application was denied in 2014, and in December 2018 a judge denied his final appeal. In October, however, two months after officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, […]

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Same-Sex Marriage Now Legal In Northern Ireland

The BBC reports: From Monday, same-sex couples will be able to register to marry, meaning the first ceremonies will take place in February. For couples who are already married, their marriage will now be legally recognised in Northern Ireland. However, those who are already in a civil partnership will not be able to convert it to a marriage at this stage. The Northern Ireland Office is set to begin a consultation later this year about converting civil partnerships and the role of churches in same-sex marriages. Same-sex marriages have been allowed in England, Scotland and Wales since 2014, but Stormont did […]

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Guilty Plea In Craigslist Gay “Sextortion” Scheme

The Santa Monica Mirror reports: A man has pleaded guilty to using Craigslist, among other sites, to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Santa Monica and Los Angeles men who responded to ads offering gay sex services. 28-year-old Tyler Buchanan pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal felony charges using an interstate facility to facilitate an unlawful activity, transmitting threatening communications with intent to extort, receiving and disposing of proceeds of extortion and criminal forfeiture. Buchanan, who remains in federal custody due to being deemed a risk to flee, faces up to 10 years in federal depending on the outcome of a sentencing […]

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Trump’s New Campaign Adviser Thinks HIV and AIDS is Punishment from God for Homosexuality

Surprise surprise, Donald Trump has appointed a campaign advisor who promotes conversion therapy and thinks HIV in gay men is “God’s moral law.” Anti-LGBT+ extremist Jenna Ellis is a right-wing news pundit and former constitutional law attorney. She does nothing to hide her strongly homophobic views and has a long history of tirades against “the homosexual lifestyle” and the “LGBT agenda.” Trump appointed her for the senior role as he was impressed by Ellis’ TV appearances, Axios reported. He also indicated that he wanted to give her a bigger job, and his team briefly discussed bringing her into the White House. Ellis […]

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Anti-LGBTQ Rep. Duncan Hunter Formally Resigns

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter sent his formal letter of resignation on Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom, effective next Monday, Jan. 13.  The longtime anti-LGBTQ representative from San Diego County’s 50th Congressional District pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court last Dec. 3 to one count of conspiracy to misuse campaign funds. In August 2018, Hunter and his wife, Margaret, were indicted on 60 federal counts of using campaign funds in excess of $250,000 for personal use from paying for their children’s tuition to plane fare for their pet rabbit to paying for hotel rooms and other expenses […]

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Trump’s Attempt to Fire HIV-positive Airmen was Blocked a Second Time

The Trump administration’s latest bid to have two HIV-positive airmen discharged from service has been blocked by courts for a second time. The two men, referred to by the pseudonyms Roe and Voe, were given discharge orders in 2017 on the basis that they couldn’t be deployed to the Middle East due to their HIV-positive status. Both men are on antiretroviral treatment, have no symptoms, and have been pronounced physically fit to deploy by their doctors. Their discharges were blocked by a preliminary injunction in February last year, which the Department of Defence and the Air Force appealed. On Friday, January […]

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Klobuchar’s Votes for Trump Judges include One with Anti-LGBTQ Record

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is facing scrutiny on the campaign trail for voting to confirm many of President Trump’s judicial nominees — and a closer look at that record reveals she backed one pick who once derided as “social policy” not only LGBTQ rights and abortion, but also school integration. With weeks remaining before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3, Klobuchar’s vote to confirm David Ryan Stras to the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals could dissuade supporters of LGBTQ rights and other progressives from supporting her in the Democratic presidential primary.  Although Stras hasn’t been as viciously anti-LGBTQ as some […]

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Nicaragua LGBTQ Activist Tortured after Arrest

A well-known LGBTQ activist in Nicaragua who was arrested last September says he was tortured while in custody. Ulises Rivas on Monday said members of Nicaragua’s National Police on Sept. 1, 2019, arrived at his niece’s volleyball game in Comalapa, a town in the country’s Chontales department that is roughly 75 miles east of the Nicaraguan capital of Managua, and arrested him because “they had an arrest warrant.”  A source with whom the Washington Blade spoke after Rivas’ arrest said he had been accused of robbing a woman. Rivas sent the Blade a screenshot of a message posted to a pro-government Facebook […]

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